Just by doing an hour of moderate exercise a day-such as jogging or swimming-you can almost halve your chances of dying from heart failure, the biggest killer in the West.
One hour of moderate exercise, or half-an-hour of more vigorous exercise, can reduce your chance of heart failure by 46 per cent, say researchers.
“You do not need to run a marathon to gain the benefits of physical activity; even quite low levels of activity can give you positive effects,” said lead researcher Kasper Andersen, from Uppsala University in Sweden.
The researchers made the discovery after they analysed the lifestyles of 39,805 men and women aged between 20 and 90, who didn’t have heart problems when the study began in 1997. Their level of activity was divided between light, such as causal walking, moderate, which included jogging and swimming, and heavy, which involved competitive sports.
But just exercising every day-even by walking, cycling or taking the stairs-could make a big difference, and could help determine whether you suffer heart failure.
(Source: Circulation: Heart Failure, 2014; doi: 10.1161/CIRCHEARTFAILURE.113.001010)
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